


The Dream Before

by TMar



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/M, Gen, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 03:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16569152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TMar/pseuds/TMar
Summary: You need a working HERC2 gene to get brown eyes. Neither of Wesley's parents of record had it.





	The Dream Before

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the huge swath of TNG stories I wrote while the show was still on. This one is from 1992. I hate songfics but a few lines from the Elton John song "Blue Eyes" seemed to fit the theme so I just used them to separate some sections. This is another tropey fic that wasn't so cliche at the time.

The Dream Before

Jean-Luc Picard lay in bed, still sweating over the dream he had had... the dream he had never had... the dream of a reality a long time ago... the reality in which he had met Beverly Crusher, made love to her... and then discovered she was the girl of his best friend.

He remembered saying to the conference that he was not in the least qualified to explain Human genetics, but they had gone on, insisting he think of a simple example... and he had. He had explained that among most humanoids, certain genes for eye colour were dominant. Brown was dominant over green and blue, green was dominant over blue. Two brown-eyed people, providing each carried a recessive blue gene, could have a blue-eyed baby, but two blue-eyed people without a working HERC2 gene could not produce a brown-eyed one.

And Picard remembered Beverly and Jack's perfectly matched blue eyes smiling at each other as Beverly held Wesley... he remembered testing everyone's DNA at Starfleet Acedemy... he remembered learning about broken and unbroken genes... he knew neither Jack nor Beverly had the working gene for brown eyes... and, finally, he remembered wondering if Wesley's eyes would change... and then realising that they wouldn't because both his parents had blue eyes.

Picard brought Wesley Crusher's face into his mind now... and he looked into those eyes. Those BROWN eyes...

**

Blue eyes... baby's got blue eyes  
Like a deep blue sea on a blue, blue day...

**

Doctor Beverly Crusher was just finishing her work in Sickbay for that day and getting ready to go to her quarters for a decent meal when she looked up to see the captain standing in the doorway, looking rather severe.

"Captain?" she asked formally, "is there something I can do for you?"

It was a public place, so Picard only said, "There is something we should talk about. Your quarters in half an hour?"

The doctor nodded, and Picard went out. She wondered what could possibly be so important that they had to discuss it in private, and not in a place designated specifically for ship's business. She stopped frowning and smiled, however, when Wesley walked in. "Hi, Mom. Wanna have dinner with Helen and  
me tonight?"

When Wesley said that, Beverly smiled. Helen was Wesley's latest girlfriend; he talked about her constantly and whenever anyone mentioned her his eyes would mist over romantically. Still, he knew that Helen admired his mother, so he made a point of inviting his mother to have dinner with them almost  
every night. But his mother, understanding young love, always begged off, and tonight was no exception. "Sorry, Wes. Have a meeting with the captain." Wesley looked skeptical. "At this hour?"

The doctor sighed. "I don't think the captain cares about the time. Work is work."

Wes had long suspected something between his mother and the captain, but had tactfully said nothing. Now, however, he judged it time to make a discreet comment. "Are you sure work is on your minds?"

"Wesley!" Beverly was genuinely shocked, and Wes realised that perhaps he had spoken out of turn. "Okay, Mom. Sorry." He made a strategic retreat, and to herself, Beverly thought, 'Anything other than work... I wish!'

The captain hardly sipped his tea, he merely stared at Beverly, remembering that time, all those years ago, in the orchard... how they had lost themselves in one another, drowned in the fact that they knew nothing about each other, that they had been just a man and a woman in love. And he was also remembering the first time he'd held Wesley, how he had transferred all the feelings for Wesley's mother to the child himself. He had vowed to love Wesley as he loved Wesley's parents... now it all seemed so ironic!

"All right, Jean-Luc, let's have it." Beverly had sat there for ten minutes watching Picard stare off into some middle distance, and she was tired of waiting.

Picard obliged her by putting down his cup and looking her straight in the eye. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"About Wesley."

Beverly still didn't follow; she had always behaved as if Wesley was Jack's son, until she had almost begun to believe it herself. She told Picard that she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Don't give me that, Doctor. I want the truth. And I want Wesley to know the truth too." It sounded like an order.

Beverly sighed. "I put such effort into making Wesley Jack's son that I... started to believe it myself."

"But he isn't."

"Of course he isn't, Jean-Luc! He's your son! But I couldn't ever bring myself to tell Jack that... it would have broken his heart. So I just..."

"Let him, Wesley, and me believe a lie."

"Yes."

"I want Wesley to know the truth."

"No."

"Doctor... either you tell him, or I will." Picard felt a burning anger at Beverly for denying him his son... and for denying his son a father.

Crusher straightened up in her chair. "Is that an order, Captain?"

"If it has to be."

"All right."

Picard got up and left, and Beverly dissolved in tears.

**

Blue eyes, baby's got blue eyes...  
When the morning comes I'll be far away...  
And I'll see blue eyes laughing in the sun,  
Laughing in the rain...

**

Crusher was still crying some time later when Wesley decided to see if his mother had eaten anything. He knew that with Picard's penchant for overworking, his mother might forget about dinner altogether.

"Mom?" he asked, tiptoeing in to find her wiping her eyes and trying to smile. Wes rushed over and took his mother by the shoulders. "What happened? Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Wes... we have to talk."

"Okay."

"Sit down," said Crusher, pointing him to a seat. She sat next to him and took his hand. "Wesley, this... for what I'm going to say, I want you to know... I'm sorry it turned out this way."

The Ensign nodded but said nothing, looking at his mother in confusion.

Then Beverly launched into a speech. "It was a few months after I met your father. I travelled to Starbase 102 to meet him while he had some time off... and I met someone there whom I loved... excessively. We spent a few glorious days together, divorced from reality... and then your f... then Jack arrived, and reality took over. We married, and I had you, and..."

"Everything was perfect." Wesley had fond memories of his parents, their devotion to him, their obvious love for one another.

Beverly swallowed. "Yes, it was... Wes... what do you know about genes for eye colour?" Beverly resorted to the same explanation Picard had, and Wesley quoted chapter and verse from his Biology text. He ended with, "What are you saying, Mom?"

"Wesley, look at me. I have blue eyes. Jack Crusher had blue eyes as well. The HERC2 genes..." She trailed off. Realisation dawned, and Wesley's eyes widened. "Jack Crusher isn't... wasn't... my father?"

"No."

"The man... from Starbase 102?"

A nod.

Wesley took his mother by the shoulders. "Mom... why are you telling me this now?"

"He... thought you should know. He just found out himself."

"Why did you lie to me, and to Dad, all those years?"

"I don't know! It seemed... the logical thing to do at the time."

"Logical, my foot!" Wesley almost shouted. "It was convenient for you to let us believe that."

"I guess. And... I guess I didn't want to hurt your fa... to hurt Jack. I  
loved him too much."

"Did you love this other man?"

"I will always love him."

And when Beverly said that, Wesley had a flash of insight. "Captain Picard! You slept with Captain Picard?" He couldn't keep the disbelief, the shock, out of his voice.

But his mother only nodded. "Captain Picard is my father?" Another nod. "You slept with Captain Picard?"

"Yes! I slept with Captain Picard! Are you happy now?!" Beverly shouted at her son. At his hurt look she tried to calm down.

Wesley had jumped up; now his mother coaxed him into sitting down again.

"Wesley, it was something much more powerful than all of us. It was..."

"A special kind of love," he finished for her.

"Yes. How..."

"I can see it every time you look at him, Mom. I know what he means to you... and what you mean to him."

"How do you know I mean anything to him?"

"His double... remember, when he was kidnapped by aliens? His double made it pretty obvious."

"Wesley, I..." And then her son proved that he was mature enough to handle revelations of that sort. "It's okay, Mom. Look, I've got to go. Helen..." He trailed off.

"Helen's waiting for you... at this hour?"

"Uh... yeah..." The young Crusher blushed, and his mother got up with him and walked to the door. "Wes..."

He looked back at her. "Yeah, Mom?"

"Don't make the same mistake."

"I haven't, Mom... er, I mean, I won't." He blushed and left quickly, and Beverly sighed, thinking that Wesley was indeed growing up.

The next day, Picard was in his Ready Room when the door chime sounded. "Come," he called, and in walked Wesley Crusher.

"Captain."

"Ensign."

Wesley looked decidedly uncomfortable, and Picard knew why. "Sit down, Wes."

"Thank you, Sir." He still didn't look at Picard, who was forced to break the silence.

"Your mother told you."

"Yes."

"Wesley, I don't know what will happen from now on, but I do want you to know... I am very proud of you, and... I love you."

And Ensign Wesley Crusher smiled brightly. "I guess it was __kind of a shock. I'm proud to... that you are my father."

"Perhaps we could... get to know each other off duty. I do want to be a part of your life."

"You always have been," said Wesley, realising that, since his birth, he had always known Jean-Luc Picard. He got up. "We can talk... later?"

Picard nodded, but just before the door slid open, Wesley decided to give his captain, and his FATHER, a fright. "Can I call you.... Dad... Sir?"

Picard looked up, almost in distaste. He wasn't sure he liked that label; he would much have preferred "Father". "I don't think that would be appropriate just yet," he said, settling for compromise in the meantime.

And Wesley Crusher smiled. "I didn't think so," he replied, and went out.

Two nights later, the newly discovered family was gathered in Beverly Crusher's quarters. Both Picard and Wesley had many questions to ask her, and she had done her best to answer them all.

Now it was getting quite late, and Wesley could see that Picard was on the verge of leaving. So he finally brought up the real reason for this dinner.

"I'm tired of seeing you two this way," he announced, seemingly out of the blue.

"What?" Both his mother and father spoke.

"Do something about it." And with that, Wesley strolled out.

"What was that all about?" Picard asked Beverly.

"Wesley... has this idea that we still care for each other. I can't contradict him."

"Because it's true," said Picard, the truth suddenly becoming clear.

"Yes, because it is true. I never stopped loving you, not even while I was with Jack. Oh, I loved Jack, but sometimes I'd lie in bed at night and look up at the stars... and I'd think of you. Sometimes, I'd look into my son's eyes, and I'd see you in my mind. Sometimes, when Jack touched me, I'd struggle not to, but I'd imagine it was you."

"Beverly, I..."

She cut him off. "If you don't feel the same, Jean-Luc, it's all right, it's..."

"I do."

"What?"

"I feel the same. I've had other relationships, but... I realise now that they were only substitutes for you."

Beverly didn't know what to say, but she realised that she didn't have to say anything when Picard walked around the table, pulled her up out of the chair, locked his arms around her, and kissed her with all the love he'd kept locked in his heart for sixteen years.

The crew of the Enterprise were very surprised, and rather titillated by the whole thing. Wesley just looked embarrassed when he realised that people knew about him; Beverly would frown and then wink, and Picard generally ignored the gossip.

He could well afford to ignore it, because every night when he returned to his cabin, there was a soft pair of arms waiting for him, or a soft pair of arms to welcome back. And then he'd kiss her, and love her, and imagine that every time was that first time in the orchard on Starbase 102.

**

Baby's got blue eyes, And I am home... again...

**  
THE END


End file.
